12/04/2007 (gretawire.foxnews.com) GretaWire Blog Posting

“A TIP sent to Greta Van Susteren regarding Kathleen’s Death”

http://www.acandyrose.com/2007-12-04-GretaWireBlogMelissa.htm

http://gretawire.foxnews.com/2007/12/03/drew-peterson-crazies-coming-out-of-the-woodwork/2465/

December 3rd, 2007 10:28 AM Eastern

Drew Peterson: “…crazies coming out of the woodwork?”

by Greta Van Susteren

Comment by Melissa Hoyle

December 4th, 2007 at 11:21 am

Hi Greta,

I am a (non-traditional) criminology student, currently on a leave-of-absence from my Master’s program. I tried to post this tip several days ago but a computer glitch resulted in the loss of my post that I had foolishly failed to save. This is actually a tip… but it takes too much space, and too many words, to post it all; and your “tip box” is so tiny, I get the impression that it is so small in an effort to discourage lengthy tips.

I picked up on this information the evening that Michael Baden summarized the autopsy on Greta’s show. I was sure others would see the discrepancies too. But, to date, it seems that not one person appearing on the news shows has noticed the same thing I noticed.

SO HERE’S MY TIP:

I believe Steve Carcerano, despite his apparent support of Drew Peterson’s innocence, absolutely (and unwittingly) holds the key to the evidence that the DA needs to try Peterson for the murder of Kathleen Savio. It’s ironic that the information has been right in front of the viewer’s face; and, in your case, right in front of your cameras. But, it’s uber-ironic that one of Drew Peterson’s few supporters is the one witness who can offer the testimony that can put a jury over-the-top of the “reasonable doubt” hurdle. And it’s nearly a certainty that he has no idea! The average person may know a bit about forensics, but not enough to know when a truthful recounting of what was observed at the scene of an “accident” three years ago, are now words capable of weaving a noose!

In the first few days of news coverage concerning the missing Stacey Peterson, Carcerano freely gave two press interviews detailing his “first person” account of finding Ms. Savio’s body in her bathtub back in 2004. The two stories, recounting his role as the FIRST PERSON to see her body, were consistent with each other and quite credible. In the second interview, he went into more detail than he had in the first interview, but there were no discrepancies between the two.

Carcerano described Kathleen Savio as “discolored” (paraphrased), and described her “wet hair” down over the front of her face. He said there was a small amount of blood coming from her nose. Carcerano went on to dispute the coroner’s observation of “blood-soaked hair” and adamantly denied seeing any blood soaked into Ms. Savio’s hair. When he was asked if he touched or moved her body, he said he HAD NOT.

Carcerano’s statement clearly indicates that he found Ms. Savio’s body FACE-UP! This is a position that DOES NOT FIT the forensic findings at all three autopsies! There is clear evidence of livor mortis indicating that Kathleen Savio’s body was FACE-DOWN for many hours after her death, and the body had gone into, and then come out of, rigor mortis during the (at least) 24 hours she lay undiscovered in her home. The blood in her body had settled and coagulated internally, DISCOLORING her dead body at the LOWEST POINT, courtesy of gravity. Also, the scalp injury Ms. Savio suffered was located on the BACK of her head, soaking the hair with blood in that limited surrounding area. The hair on the front side of her head, that “covered her face,” as Carcerano described, would have given little-to-no indication of the injury, or the blood-soaked hair around it, if the body was discovered face-up and left untouched and unmoved during the time Carcerano remained at the scene. And, too, one has to wonder how Ms. Savio’s hair could have possibly still been wet when an estimated thirty hours passed between her death and her discovery. Even the slowest-leaking bathtub stopper would have drained a full tub within five hours, leaving twenty-five more hours for Ms. Savio’s hair to dry; and even the thickest head-of-hair could not remain damp all that time.

If Steve Carcerano did indeed discover Kathleen Savio’s body “discolored” and with “her hair in front of her face” and with “a small amount of blood coming from her nose” and absent the “blood- soaked hair” described in the first autopsy, then he clearly discovered the body FACE-UP. And if that is the case, then Ms. Savio’s body was MOVED by someone AFTER she had been lying dead, in the same face-down position, for many hours!

Despite the silly theatrics of summoning a locksmith, a bit of drama staged for the benefit of his former neighbors (all of whom he must have believed were incredibly gullible), only Drew Peterson could have moved Ms. Savio’s body hours after she had died (her body remaining in the same face-down position creating liver mortis), leaving no signs of forced entry, and re-locking the house.

These two very neighbors whom Peterson recruited and sent into the Savio home in front of him (allowing them to “find” the body) had also witnessed a major incident on the Savio front lawn where Kathleen flew into a rage because Stacey was videotaping a “child exchange” with Kathleen’s OWN camera; an item that was among those she had reported stolen from her home, with no forced entry, while she was at work. Of course she had told the police the thefts were the work of Drew Peterson, but her claims were regarded as only suspicion. Drew’s possession of her stolen camera (by proxy, through Stacey) flaunted on her own front lawn, proved that her suspicions were correct. And it also proved that Drew Peterson could come and go as he pleased in his ex wife’s house, regardless of Kathleen’s wishes or protests. So there certainly was no need for a locksmith that night, and I’m sure that those who knew both Drew and Kathleen couldn’t have helped but roll their eyes at the transparency, and absurdity, of that event. Why not just call for back-up from his fellow officers if he was so concerned? The police have a right to break into any home and do a welfare check when requested by family members, and Drew could have waited outside as a “family member” and allow his fellow officers to go in and do the check. Instead, he illegally called a locksmith before, he claims, he knew there was anything wrong with Ms. Savio at all! And he sends her best friend and another civillian neighbor into the house rather than the police who are supposed to be the ones who do such things.

In my opinion, the livor mortis, and the position of the body when Steve Carcerano “discovered” her body, is the key to charging Drew Peterson with Kathleen Savio’s murder.

Comment by Melissa Hoyle

December 4th, 2007 at 2:38 pm

Hi Naples!

What I believe is possibly what Peterson was thinking is that NO ONE would believe it was a slip- and-fall tub accident if they found her body face down in a tub full of water. It’s literally impossible to accidently fall and land in that position. The person would have to do a full “twist,” mid-fall, to end up face down.

If she had fallen while standing in the tub, and for some reason her feet had slipped out from under her while she had been facing the BACK of the tub (opposite the shower head), then she could have ended up face down, but the laceration to her head would have been located on her forehead… not on the back of her head.

I think Drew thought logically about the crime beforehand, when he was calm and relaxed, pleasantly planning the murder of Kathleen (and I personally believe her death was definitely a planned murder, and not at all a crime of passion.) I think he knew enough to realize there needed to be an injury to the back of her head to make the “fall-and-knock-herself-out-so-she-could-drown” scenario seem viable. And because of this reasoning on his part, I believe the blow to the back of the head was the first injury inflicted upon Kathleen. He somehow talked his way into the house with a ruse she believed to be genuine, and the first time she turned her back to him, he ambushed her by striking her in the back of the head with something he was sure would cause instant unconsciousness. But it didn’t… and she turned to face him and started fighting him fiercely.

His plan had gone awry, he was forced to improvise, and her ability to fight back and really hurt him was something he never planned on happening. He was forced to fight for the upper-hand and that impaired his ability to think within the confines of “the plan” and get back on track with his well -planned murder. This made him angry and the rage built until his strength easily regained the role of attacker, and he forced her head down, probably into the toilet rather than the tub. There is no reason to believe the tub would have been filled at that time. Pre-filling the tub would have been an ominous sign, sure to tip Kathleen off that something deadly was about to happen.

I think she probably drowned in the toilet, after which time Drew removed her clothing while filling the tub. Because he was still in a fit of rage, very angry at Kathleen for forcing him to cause several injuries to her that he might have to explain to the police… not his buddies, but the county sheriff’s office… and that wasn’t part of his plan! Because of his still-uncontrolled rage because of all that had gone wrong, he could not think logically at that time, and he hauled her off the floor and dumped her body head-first into the newly filled tub. Then he left in rage and disgust.

But, hours later, after he had given himself enough time (and probably enough booze) to calm down and begin thinking rationally, he realized her body could not be found the way he had left it. He needed to turn her onto her back, with her head immersed under water and the gash in her scalp on the back of her head. If she were found in this position, it might be believeable that she lost her footing… fell backwards putting the gash in her head and knocking her unconscious… at which time she tragically slipped, unconscious, under the water, on her back, and drowned in the full tub. But he was forced to wait too long before he could slip back inside the Savio home unnoticed and reposition her body so that it would be consistent with that “accidental falling death” scenario. He was probably surprised to find the tub empty where the water had slowly leaked out around the stopper. So he refilled it after repositioning her body and attempted to adjust the stopper so it would not leak again, but he failed at that task, it would appear. By the time he had restaged the scene, livor mortis on Kathleen’s body was able to tell a story of its own.

The front of her body must have been so purple that Steve Carcerano at first thought the object in the tub was a colorful beach ball! But because he had never seen a dead body that had not been embalmed and laid out in a casket, Carcerano was not aware that the discoloration was located in the wrong place for Kathleen to have died and remained in that position until he found her while doing a good deed for his friend, Drew Peterson.